Beef Stew - yum?

Recently I have become pretty tired of all the same meals. Every now and then I try to get creative and make something new, but really, we eat a LOT of chicken and pasta prepared in an endless number of ways; and our share of "quick fix" meals. So, while I was shopping recently I decided to expand my meat selection beyond chicken breasts and ground turkey and picked up a few things I'd have in the freezer for when I'm bored.

I picked up some beef cubes and thought I'd be able to find something fun to do with them.

I decided on a beef stew.

I knew I wanted something I could throw in the slow cooker and not have to worry about until dinner time, so I thought THIS RECIPE on allrecipes.com would be perfect.

OF course, I never follow a recipe 100%, so I'll mention that I made the following changes:

1. I used a little under 2 lbs of beef - this was not on purpose, I just didn't have enough
2. I didn't use the bay leaf
3. I used extra paprika and worcestershire sauce
4. I only used 1/2 an onion
5. I added A LOT more broth (and flour - to thicken the broth - and then added a little water b/c it was TOO thick)
6. extra potatoes
7. fewer carrots and no celery
8. added mushrooms
9. served it over rice

I must say it was pretty darn good! Perfect for the semi-cool fall day and even more perfect not having to cook after working in the yard.

In the future if I make it again, I'd go much heavier on the salt and pepper add much more than 2 pounds of beef and not add as much flour to keep it a little more 'soupy' (the extra broth was a must in my opinion, a cup and a half just wouldn't have covered the ingredients).